Middle-Earth Online Site - August Letter

Story is this month's subject for the newest team comments on Turbine's game adaptation of Tolkien's work.

By IGN Staff

Readers visiting the official website devoted to Middle-Earth Online will find another set of developer notes, this time on the importance of story depth. These are the beginning paragraphs:

The world of Middle-earth is perhaps one of the most extensive ever created from the imagination of one man. Geography, history, even languages have all been envisioned and recorded; even the very origin of the world itself has been explained! But the lynchpin of Middle-earth is not facts and figures. It is stories, and the characters in them. This month we'll be releasing information on some of the features and content that the team has created in order to share the stories of Middle-earth with the players.

The team has worked hard to create an exciting new storyline for MEO. This story does more than just tie up some loose ends hinted at in The Lord of the Rings; it creates a new chronicle that is woven tightly into the history of Middle-earth. Players will encounter themes from Tolkien's books woven into the quests and tasks they receive, especially themes of temptation, corruption, and redemption.

In Middle-Earth Online, players will be transported to the world made popular by Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings fiction, with areas such as the Shire and Rivendell being available for exploration. - TruthSword